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Leader (1850-1860), 24th December 1853, Edition 2 of 2, Page 8, LECTURE ONXABOUR BY MR. DANIEL WHITTLE H...

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      City Matters. The Festival Of St. Thomas...

      Mr . Alderman Copelaud , presiding over the wardmote of Bishopsgate , said he viewed the proceedings of the commission wi tli " unspeakable disgust . " The mote was also speechless ; perhaps from lack of sympathy . - There appears to be only two cases of opposition ; otherwise the elections hare been carried out with unanimity . Two old members , Mr . Evans , who has served 32 years , and Mr . Watkins , who has served 30 years , retire from their wards , carrying with them the thanks of the citizens . The City Commission sat on Tuesday , and adjourned to the nth of January . Several witnesses were examined , but their evidence presented no new features of interest .

      1232 The Leader. [Saturday ,

      1232 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

      Lecture Onxabour By Mr. Daniel Whittle H...

      LECTURE ONXABOUR BY MR . DANIEL WHITTLE HARVEY . The appearance of Mr . Daniel Whittle Harvey , Commissioner of the London Police , as a lecturer on the rights and duties of labour , may be taken as a gratifying sign of the set of public attention in that direction . Mr . Harvey lectured o n this subject at the Kelvedon Institution , Essex , on Tuesdaj-, to about three hundred persons , among whom were " many agriculturists" from the neighbourhood . Mr . Harvey said the requirements of labour were misunderstood on the one hand and derided on the other .

      " The workmen demanded relief from ceaseless toil , a cure for involuntary idleness and unmerited poverty , an antidote against the misery , ignorance , and vice which these evils produced . Their advocates repudiated the notion that such objects were unattainable and visionary . They took comfort from what the human mind had already achieved in science , in literature , and the arts . They insisted that the time had come when mighty changes might be effected with the least injury to individuals , when , enlightened by experience , the public could correct errors in a calmdispassionate spirit , on the broad and unchangeable principle of equal rights . It was not surprising that doctrines so seductive as these found willing adherents ; and , unless those to whom they were addressed were better instructed , their progress

      was as certain as their tendency was pernicious . That equality of rights which was claimed as the very soul of society was a mere delusion , unallied with equality of duties . It was contended that all the excessive toil and poverty and wretchedness of the working classes was solely attributable to the unjust and iniquitous manner in which labour and its reward were apportioned , and that until the social arrangements which produced and perpetuated this injustice were altered , no relief could be given to the sons of toil . This scheme of national regeneration was that of the Socialists , who sought for an equal distribution of the common stock realised by the labour of the whole community , and that without reference to the inequalities of the mental or corporeal faculties of individuals . "

      Mr . Harvey , however , admitted that the condition of labouring men did not correspond with their pretensions , and that it ought . The interests of masters and men are identical . " But their interests being identical , whence , he asked , arose the dark , deep chasm which at present yawned between them ? He could only find a solution of the question in the disturbance of their natural relations to each other . But existing systems , right or wrong , were too deeply rooted in the soil of ages to yield readily to change ; and when a country had become great through the aids of cultivation , arts , and learning , a necessity for its preservation was established , against which sweeping abstract theories , however

      fascinating , could not prevail . What , therefore , ought to be done , and what pressed with increasing weight upon every considerate mind was , as quietly and effectually as possible to remove the evils and preserve the benefits that Jiad arisen in our transit from a simple to a highly artificial state of society . The condition of existence was the right of subsistence , mid food , clothing , and shelter were the elements of that right . Labour was the condition of their attainment , and nowiiere could these elements be found to exist primarily , save in the cultivation of tho earth—the raw material of all wealth . Were the labouring classes fed , clothed , housed , and educated in a manner corresponding with the improvements which marked the condition of the

      landlord and tho tenant ? It could not bo denied that the inequalities bctweon them were becoming daily wider and more apparent , tho rural population having been better fed and less actually borne down by labour when they were the mere scrfa of feudalism . A mere commercial principlo , when it became subservient to a calculating spirit of accumulation , generated the idolatry of Mammon , and dried up all tho aocial charities of life . The notion of degradation which attached to mere labour also disturbed tho equality of tho contracting purticH , and there appeared a studied desire to forget that the toil and the privation of the working man formed tho eolo nourco of , wealth . An essential moans by which this prejudicial

      conflict of feeling might bo suppressed would bo found in the obligation , which every capitalist who Bought to hire a farm should recognise , of being tho guardian or tho working classes . Ho calculated tho number of horses ho would require , nnd tho cost of their keep , the capital nccoHsury for cultivation , demanded now buildingH , or tho repair of old ; but the duo reward of the labourer , tho cheerful cottage nnd its rood of ground , wcro littlo considered . When tho question of rent wuh nettled , an important party to tho contract was absent . That contract involved nn adequate provision for thoHfi who cultivated tho soil , and n reasonable profit upon tho capital and Hkill employed ; and when these two claiinu were satisfied , the surplus was tho rent . That these proportions wcro not

      preserved was tod evident . Territorial possessions were aggrandised and capital accumulated in heaps , while prostrate labour presented its woful lot in every distressing form that could be imagined . This state of things could not continue . The working classes had a clear . conviction that the social scheme operated to their disfavour . Yet there was no portion of the population which possessed firmer elements of character or a purer sense of right Their combinations and strikes were but the manifestation of their deep conviction that the intersts of capital were in the present industrial arrangements of society wielded to their disadvantage . . . It was greatl y to the prejudice of the working man that , in matters of indirect taxation , he paid , not a proportionate , but the same per-centage as the owner

      of 10 , 000 Z . a-year . One-third of the labourer ' s scanty p ittance was sub tracted by taxation upon indispensable articles of consumption , and he might justly complain that the absence or perversion of capital cheated him of his exertions , while he was excluded from a reasonable participation in the profits of the soil as tenant cultivator . .. . Mr Harvey pointed out , as a grievance of which the working classes had a right loudly to complain , the state of ignorance in which they were kept from the absence of suitable provision for their instruction . It was because they were so kept in ignorance of their social rights that they were indifferent to their social duties . The higher classes had no security for their position but in the education of the people , who , in their turn , would discern that the comforts of life were the fruits of industry , that there could be no accumulation of property but from its saving , and that , the twin

      rightly understood , labour and capital were elements to which everything that advanced , improved , and elevated man was to be attributed . The first step to be taken , in order to carry out the views which he had been expounding , was to obtain a sounder and wiser appreciation of the relations of employer and employed . How often did masters seem to have no apprehension of the feelings of those under them—no idea of any duty on their side beyond ' cash payment . Servants , from their want of education , were often little better than ¦ - . children ... To cherish and reward the labours of industry , -with a view to the greatest production of the comforts of life , was a pursuit

      worthy of the best and purest minds . It had been well saw that , in the eye of Heaven , wages were unjustly withheld from the labourer when they were totally inadequate to his subsistence , and such as nothing but helpless indigence induced him to accept . Recognised rights would speedily guarantee the cheerful observance of recognised duties on the part of the working classes . It was not to be denied that great distrust pervaded their minds , but that would be mitigated by the higher tone of feeling ' which reflection kindled , and by the palpable evidences of consideration for their condition ; the more the people knew , the better would they be able to appreciate what was -worth preserving . "

      At the close of the lecture , which was warmly applauded throughout , the meeting , on the motion of Mr . Mechi , seconded by Mr . Varenne , voted by acclamation their thanks to Mr . Harvey .

      Sabbatarians Rebuked. It Is Not Seldom T...

      SABBATARIANS REBUKED . It is not seldom that Scotland lends a helping hand to physical , political , or religious progress . The latter is by far the most infrequent ; but we have one sturdy lift at the wheel to record . Our readers will remember that Sir James Colquhoun , defeated , in his appeal to the judicial authority of the district to put down the Sunday excursions of the Emperor steamer on the Clyde , carried his case to Edinburgh , and demanded the assistance of the Court of Session to suppress the " nuisance . " As he claimed the piers , which the passengers of the Emperor more than once so gallantly carried by storm , he asked the Court to interdict the use of the piers to the public on Sundays . The case was fully debated before the Lord of the Second Division on the 6 th inst . For , Sir James , the complainor , it was pleaded that he had erected the piers at his own expense and on his own property , that ho had been in use to levy dues there , and to exercise the rights of proprietor over them . More particularly , he contended that he was in possession of right over them to the extent of shutting them on the Sundays . He also pleaded that these parties who had infringed his rights were carrying on an illegal truffle , and that their proceedings were sin infraction of the statutes passed in 1579 and 1090 to protect the sacredness of the Sabbath , the complaitier considering his case to be tho stronger , that the parties thus injuring his patrimonial interest were nt the time engaged in an illegal act . For the respondents , it was pleaded that tho piers , by whomsoever they had been erected , were built upon tho public shore , and therefore upon public property , and that persons so erecting piers could not exercise patrimonial right over them , or exclude the public using tho loch as a highway , from at any time landing at them . The patrimonial interest , if sustained , would equally entitle tho proprietor to close the piers on saints' days , fast days , ' or any day ho thought proper . On this side , tho obligation of the old statutes was denied . The Court thought tho case should be confined to patrimonial interest , leaving out of view tho question of Sabbath profanation . On Thursday week the Court gave judgment in tho case .

      Tho Lord Justice Clerk remarked that tho suspender had presented this suspension and interdict in rcpect of his alleged rights as proprietor of certain piers in the Gurcloch and in Loch Long . " Jn support of these righte lie had not attempted to take

      the gronnd that he could exclude the public , at all tinies an 1 to any extent he chose , from these piers , but he pleaded that as ~ proprietor of the pier , he was entitled to have these ner sons interdicted from plying to them , because the day en which they chose to come was Sunday , and because the resorted to them in profanation of the Sunday . The interdict had no . prayer to prohibit these persons from sailing ju ^ steamer to and from Glasgow on the Sundays , aud no public law of any kind had been stated which prevented th steamer sailing down the Clyde or entering the Garelocii or Loch Long on that day . So far as the Court knew theri > was nothing to prevent this any more than to prevent nn »

      vessel leaving any public port or entering any port in the British kingdom Ion Sunday . But , laying aside the question of Sabbath profanation entirely—for , if the suspender conld show a sufficient patrimonial , he did not require this additional plea , and , if he could not do so , this Court did not sit to try such alleged infractions of the criminal law— . they came to the question of the alleged outrages and breaches of the peace of which the suspender complained . He did not think that this point really bore oh the question they had now to decide . Permission for these breaches of the peace was not what the complainer could ask for in this court . If he had no right at his own hands and without authority previously obtained to extrude the public from the use of these

      piers on : Sunday , he was wrong to attempt to erect barricades , and oppose by a sort of posse comitatus those whom by law he had no right prirrid , facie to exclude . If he had such a right as he claimed , certainly his case could not receive aid from such unseemly proceedings . Indeed / one was surprised that any one entertaining , as they could not doubt the complainer did , a proper and pious regard for the sanctity and repose of the Sabbath , such as it had been observed in Scotland , should in the first instance have brought on the certainty of such conflicts by the measures he adopted . On the part of the respondents and those acting with them , and of the passengers , these collisions and

      outrages which the complainer described might have been expected as inevitable . Entertaining what their counsel termed ' their views of the Sunday question , ' they could not be expected to pay any attention to the character of the day as any reason for abstaining from forcing a violent passage , notwithstanding the preparations made for resisting it . These collisions and breaches of the peace were plainly inevitable , if force were resorted to to prevent these persona landing ; and the course adopted was as singular on the part of one desirous to preserve tne sanctity of the Sunday , as the forcible landing was ' natural , on the part of those who disregarded the Sunday . " But , clearing the case of these matters as having no legal bearing on the question , they came to the real question they had to decide . By the admission of the suspender , tlio

      piers were places of public resort , aud were thrown open to them for certain dues , and there was no averment that they were only used by certain persons to whom ex gratia he gave leave . But , assuming that these piers were built by him , as he alleged , and assuming that he was entitled to heavy dues ( though he had not stated on what authority he did so , and the Court was not to be understood as giving any opinion on the legality of the exaction ) , if he built these piers as a source of revenue to himself , and at his own hand and without authority levied dues from the public , this did not put his piers in a better situation than any regular port , or harbour , or

      pier established on competent authority . If , on his own showing , lie was in the situation of levying dues from the public in this manner , he must submit to the consequence of Jthose piers being open and patent to tlie public , . in the same way as if he had legal authority for the exaction . lUs admitted that it was a very laudable object for the pursuer to endeavour so to regulate the piers as to prevent a crowd of idle passengers from a great public town landing quite dose to the parish church , and converting the quiet banks oi the Garelock into places of resort for idleness and noisy revelry ; and for one who would go on Buch pleasure trips tocnioythe pure air and the elevated scenery , there were

      probably fifty who would go only to indulge in the Uaows " * an ill-spent town life . But the question was , could a pumalanding-place of this kind be closed on Sunday on th ° allcg r " ground of private property ? The suspender might maw out an action of declaration that he possessed such patrimonial right as to entitle him to do so , but , on the W >™ of granting interdict on the Bill Chamber , tho Court , ** present advised , were of opinion , on tho suspenders o showing , that the primd facie case was nguinst him . *¦* Court could not , on any authority or argument wliicn jm been addressed to thorn , hold in tho Bill Chamber t » ml in suspender was in possession of Buch an uncontronea » absolute right , as proprietor , as to announce that on aun J t . l . r « o r . WH NlinnM h « no Ion ™ nublic . The suspender sp «* umb

      , would give tho right to deny access to the pier to all whether aeoking shelter or driven by fltrcaa of weatuw , whether at sea from proper and necessary causes ; aim answer , if attempted , that he would only exclude s " ° " j sort to tho pier us this steamer occasioned would oniy j out more clearly tho repugnanco between Ins unc 0 " ^ and arbitrary exercise of his alleged rights , aa propn as , tho exclusion of some persons nud tho admission or cm . and the fact thut tho piers were resorted to by tho Vu »' w > j . that revcuuo was drawn from them .. Tho Court " >?««* . lecfc that ili ! M-AiY * i « nrt nnhlin law which sliutup piorB ,

      " bonr « , or highways on tlioSunday ; there was no itt * JJ ^ u . travelling oh the Sunday by sea or land , entitling w ^ keeper to shut hia gates and tho harbour-muster to > v vohsoIh from his port . Tho application for this pr >» rested solely on tho BiispenderVi alleged ratninoiiia ^ and tho Court wore at present of opinion that on u / {() facie vitw of tho ( mention , the pier wan quite sum Jer meet this application for interdict , and tlmttno - V * lUi hail not inado out Buch a case in support ° » '" " C no" * would warrant thorn in granting tho prohibition Bought . " nt Lord Cockburn concurred . Ho was not »* PJJJ w aatiufied of tho right nny j privato indiviuuu . appropriate the seashore m any form , «¦»

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1853, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24121853/page/8/